Mammoth Apostle
''"For the public, two breeds of Ranger are remotely worth any attention: ones who've kicked the most kaiju ass, and the ravishingly attractive ones for the fangirls to slobber over. Fuck that. No offense to everyone else, but I'd rather ride with McGillis and Shughart than all of 'em put together." '' ''- ''Bruce Gage Mammoth Apostle was a mark IV American jaeger. The second American mark IV, Mammoth was stationed at the Los Angeles, Anchorage and Nagasaki Shatterdomes until its destruction in 2024. History Early Combat History Mammoth Apostle was launched on May 25, 2018, with former Delta Force Master Sergeants(MSG) Orson McGillis and Damien Shughart assigned as her crew. These two would soon establish their jaeger as the most sought-after strike group partner in the Corps. Although never racking up a record-shattering kill count, the ex-Deltas were unanimously revered for their uncanny ability to maintain rational thought under the most vexing conditions. This directly correlated to Mammoth's participation in 13 engagements, proving herself a decisive factor in each and every one of them. Clawhook Mammoth Apostle's first deployment came slightly over a year after launch against the cat III kaiju "Clawhook." After an uneventful tussle with Mammoth off the coast of Santa Monica, Clawhook changed course and headed for San Diego. Gipsy Danger briefly intercepted it before the two engaged in a three-hour game of cat and mouse, in which Gipsy desperately struggled to prevent the elusive Clawhook from making landfall. Shortly after Mammoth arrived from Santa Monica, Gipsy managed to lure Clawhook towards the waiting Mk.IV. Clever maneuvering by Mammoth's pilots sent Clawhook barreling into an undersea boulder, after which the kaiju was pounded senseless and hurled in Gipsy's direction. The Beckets let loose five bolts of plasma into Clawhook's midsection for the kill. Knifehead On February 29, 2020, the Breach spat out the largest category III. Spectrometer buoys along the American West Coast picked it up near San Diego, prompting deployment from the Los Angeles Shatterdome. Mammoth Apostle and Romeo Blue waited off Santa Monica's Miracle Mile for three hours without making contact. At the eve of the fourth hour, LOCCENT confirmed that Knifehead had run up North. Both jaegers were called back in as Anchorage prepared to deploy Gipsy Danger. Hidoi Hidoi breached on May 9, 2021 and headed for Bangkok. Although Shaolin Rogue and Horizon Brave intercepted it near the Strait of Malacca, both jaegers failed to gain the advantage. The 8-hour struggle ended when Hidoi swam towards the Gulf of Thailand, Bangkok squarely in its sights. Mammoth was deployed from the Hong Kong Shatterdome, reaching Bangkok just as Hidoi closed in. Jaeger and kaiju rammed into each other without hesitation, the latter being sent flying into the sea. Before it could recover, Hidoi was pinned down and blasted in the face by Mammoth's incendiary burners. This was followed by successive punches to the beast'e ribcage, sending shards of bone ripping through its vital organs. When it became clear Hidoi wasn't going anywhere, Mammoth proceeded to savagely pound its face in with slow, strategic jackhammer punches. Since Hidoi remained alive even after its primary brain had been pulped, Mammoth snapped a clawed arm and ripped it out, thrusting it into Hidoi's stomach. One final blow to the mutilated kaiju drove its own claw straight through its spine. Vodyanoi 2023's third quarter was not kind to the "Icebox." Anchorage's two active jaegers were temporarily knocked out, while Vladivostok's Cherno Alpha and Nova Hyperion were also sidelined with repairs. Therefore, nobody was surprised at the collective ''thud ''of Marshals' heads hitting the conference table once Vodyanoi decided to run up North. Although still stuck in sickbay after a nasty engagement three months prior, the Kaidanovskys demanded that Cherno be deployed alongside Eden Assassin. Down in Los Angeles, McGillis and Shughart volunteered to back them up out of soldierly respect. The three jaegers were spread out evenly along the Aleutian Islands and its vicinity. After two hours of anxious monitoring, it was Cherno who made contact off the coast of Atka Island. A mad scramble broke out in Kodiak Island as Jumphawks took to the air, a snow-flecked Mammoth Apostle dangling perilously from their lift gear. Back in Atka, Cherno was in for a long night. The Mk.I's lumbering strikes were easily sidestepped by Vodyanoi, whose characteristic slippery hide thwarted even the most steadfast of grasps. Adding insult to injury, the bastard seemed to possess an insatiable hunger for Cherno's exposed joints, which groaned in protest at the onslaught of hooked talons. Sasha reported loss of maneuverability and catastrophic structural failure just as Eden's sprinting form appeared over the horizon. Eden fared slightly better, finally managing to tag Vodyanoi with a series of rapid slashes to its flank. Ten minutes out, McGillis requested a drop point change to 500 meters off Eden's 10 o'clock, ordering the Mk.II to lure Vodyanoi in that direction. Thus began a series of zigzag maneuvering, in which Mammoth and Eden tag-teamed their prey back and forth in the direction of Atka's shoreline. Mammoth pinned down the visibly exhausted bogey and delivered a punishing series of blows to its cranium. Eden then hoisted up Vodyanoi and dragged it ashore, where chances of escape were minimal. Yet as the Mk.II advanced for the kill, a torrent of searing turquoise bile from Vodyanoi's maw chewed right through her conn-pod. Marina Ivanovic and Petro Shevchenko were both dead before they could muster a scream. Mammoth was just coming ashore when a headless, motionless Eden registered on her HUD. Instantly realizing what had happened, McGillis and Shughart unloaded their railguns onto Vodyanoi, buying time to move in and nail its jaw with a left hook. An attempted acid attack was shrewdly countered by a cauterizing incinerator blast. Vision obscured by blistering heat and warped facial features, Vodyanoi floundered aimlessly while Mammoth hammered its bones to powder. Its fate was all but sealed when a hate-fueled Cherno Alpha limped over and began bludgeoning it with an iceberg. Fulminatrix The category IV Fulminatrix breached on April 30, 2024. K-Watch predicted it would head for Okinawa, inciting a massive scramble for Korea and Japan. After a brief encounter with Crimson Typhoon and Nova Hyperion, Fulminatrix made headway for Tokyo with both Mk.IV's in hot pursuit. An attempted double-team off the coast of Nagoya failed when Fulminatrix ambushed Nova from behind and used it as a distraction to elude Typhoon. Mammoth and Tacit Ronin were standing by in Sapporo when LOCCENT gave the order to engage. Due to the relative inexperience of Ronin's second team(they had only one engagement), Mammoth would take point. Typhoon was waiting to join them if things went south. Fulminatrix made no attempt to run as it dauntlessly charged Mammoth. After striking Fulminatrix down with a double-fisted blow, Mammoth began repeatedly smacking it underwater and picking it up, only to nail it again with a barrage of hooks and jabs. Ronin silently closed in from Fulminatrix's 3 o'clock and began slashing deep gashes along its side. Twenty minutes later, Fulminatrix wrapped its tail around Mammoth's legs and hurled her away. As luck would have it, a knotted mass of fishing nets effectively lashed the jaeger onto a boulder. The Americans could only watch as Fulminatrix sank its claws deep within Ronin's torso and began dragging her to shore. By the time Mammoth ripped free of the fishing nets, Fulminatrix had long since made landfall, while Ronin lay in pieces scattered across Sapporo's coastline. Both pilots had been crushed inside their obliterated conn-pod. Meanwhile, Nagasaki's Marshal Kurita green-lighted Typhoon's deployment to Sapporo. Mammoth and Fulminatrix clashed again at noon. In rage over the death of yet another set of Rangers, Mammoth's pilots mercilessly throttled their quarry and ripped into it with their bare hands. By the time Typhoon arrived, Fulminatrix's prone husk was strewn across Sapporo's beachfront. Its chest cavity was blasted apart by the Wei triplets for good measure. Kojiyama Kojiyama breached on June 13, 2024. Puma Real and Diablo Intercept made contact near Cabo, only to be savagely ripped apart in broad daylight. Cabo was reduced to smoldering ruins as Kojiyama proceeded to Acapulco. An hour later, Mammoth engaged Kojiyama on Acapulco's Miracle Mile. The ensuing battle was a dynamic one, raging from the coastline to the continental shelf and back again. In particular, the undersea struggle inflicted harrowing damage on Mammoth in the form of hull breaches and battery flooding. The latter contributed to the jaeger's complete loss of power, which may have resulted in a fall off the continental shelf. This was luckily averted thanks to the Rangers' decision to drain the water into less important subsystems. McGillis and Shughart later sealed their victory after vaporizing Kojiyama's head inside the mouth of an undersea volcano. Destruction On October 4, 2024, Mammoth was deployed to Kuching with instructions to hold off KC-24 until Striker Eureka arrived. At this time only three mark IV's remained in service, these being Mammoth, Crimson Typhoon and Nova Hyperion. Little did PPDC marshals know, this number would be whittled down to just two by the end of that day. KC-24 surged out of the water at 6 P.M. sharp, making no attempt to slither away unnoticed. After feinting with a swipe at Mammoth's conn-pod, it delivered a vicious double-tailstrike to the jaeger's chest, shearing off several feet of solid steel. KC-24 then mounted a punishing offensive in which its main arms continually targeted Mammoth's conn-pod while its bladed skull, secondary arms, and tail wreaked havoc on the torso. Within twenty minutes, Mammoth was dead in the water. Unrelenting, the kaiju ripped out Mammoth's knee joints and circled hungrily as the jaeger fell over. It then pulled Mammoth underwater, digging its claws into the conn-pod and ripping the frontal visor open amid a shower of sparks. The right conn-pod wall was pulverized with a twitch of KC-24's claws, taking with it a struggling McGillis. Shughart briefly experienced the sensation of crashing through the Drift before what remained of the conn-pod was crushed flat. Features The PPDC's design goal for Mammoth was a mark IV Cherno Alpha with astronomically superior strength, armor and speed. This translated to a "front-line" jaeger with the role of soaking up hits and enervating the adversary through sheer tenacity. Although considerably smaller than most earlier units, Mammoth is the largest and heaviest later-generation jaeger. Strength Mammoth's tremendous strength output exceeds that of any prior jaeger, matched only by Striker Eureka. Each punch exerts enough force to smash Onibaba's skull with one hit. When amplified by the jackhammer-arms, Mammoth's hitting power is slightly superior to Striker's. Jackhammer attacks are only used to obtain time by battering back a kaiju, as their sheer kinetic force could disrupt the flow of an engagement. Armor Armor accounts for 32% of Mammoth's entire weight. Lightweight B2 Crystal Steel allowed tremendous amounts of armor to be applied without increasing weight. As a result, the armor on Mammoth's limbs is as thick as those on Cherno Alpha's reactor tower, while Mammoth's chest armor is almost twice that amount. Such unprecedented thickness, coupled with a more effective armor layout and cutting-edge alloys, ensured Mammoth's survivability under the harshest conditions. Speed In line with other densely armored jaegers, Mammoth is considerably slow for a mark IV. Its colossal bulk and chunky limbs result in a slow, lumbering gait when running. However, there is more than meets the eye regarding such seemingly unimpressive maneuverability, as Mammoth is more nimble than many lighter mark I, II and III jaegers. In addition, Mammoth's movements are relatively flexible and fluid, enabling her to perform complex Bushido moves without difficulty; this ability is unmatched by any other jaeger of her bulk. Armament In addition to the HB Mk.1 Jackhammer-arms, Mammoth possesses two multi-exhaust incendiary burners located on her shoulders. These are used to cauterize Blue and fend off a kaiju if it latches onto the superstructure. Although significantly hotter than Cherno Alpha's incinerator turbines, Mammoth's burners have a limited capacity due to the jaeger's lack of a nuclear reactor; if the fuel is exhausted, Mammoth's batteries can fuel the burners for a limited amount of time. Complementing the burners is a pair of EM-32 railuns mounted on Mammoth's chest. In essence an evolution of Romeo Blue and Tacit Ronin's gatling guns, the EM-32's are capable of lobbing specially shaped tungsten projectiles at speeds of up to Mach 9. An effective range of over 200 miles and a fire rate of 30 rounds per minute renders this weapon ideal for long-range bombardment prior to first contact. Trivia * McGillis and Shughart were childhood friends from Atlanta. Prior to joining Delta, they served in the 75th Ranger Regiment for 8 years. * McGillis and Shughart's drivesuit helmets were crafted from the Ops-Core FAST's they used during their Delta years. J-techs added Pons caps to the helmet shells' interior and attached facial protection to the side rails. * Mammoth's Rangers were acquainted with Bruce and Trevin Gage prior to K-Day. Bruce was a close friend from the 75th, while Trevin's MH-60 often ferried them to combat zones. The Gage twins subsequently persuaded McGillis and Shughart to join the Jaeger Academy. * It is said that Shughart witnessed the events of K-Day during a raid on an ISIS compound. Specifically, the sight of Trespasser projected onto a grainy TV screen caused him to stall after breaching the door. A wily insurgent would have put a bullet through his chest had it not been for McGillis' proactiveness. * As of 2025, Mammoth's record of 13 engagements remains unsurpassed. * Mammoth's wreck rusted away in Kuching until 2026. It was then dismantled and sold for scrap, while sections of her arm and torso ended up in Santa Monica. * Photographer Andreas Gursky's picture of Mammoth being dropped into San Diego Bay(the image in the infobox) won the 2019 Pulitzer Prize. Kaiju Killed Category:Jaegers Category:Mark IV